Torrey Mack, of Stratford, heads upfield for WestConn in a recent game. Mack and good friend Octavious McKoy have helped turn WestConn around as both have revived their football careers.
Photo: Contributed Photo

DANBURY -- In the press box above the Western Connecticut State football field, where the coaching staff assembles to review film, there's a bulletin board greeting anyone who enters.

It's mostly bare, but at the center, there's a tweet printed out from this past April. Its author, Jamal Taylor, attends Nichols College. Its message is this: "We play Western Connecticut State in football next year, oh I can't wait."

Next to it, a separate message is scribbled in red ink.

"How did that work out for you?"

It worked out 44-7 in WestConn's favor, the program's most lopsided win in eight years. It was a workout for the Nichols defense, helplessly chasing the devastating straight-line speed of Torrey Mack (103 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns on 14 touches) and the powerful, compact Octavias McKoy (136 yards on 15 touches).

"The (conference) is in trouble," Nichols coach Kevin Loney told WestConn's student newspaper, The Echo. "Because Western Connecticut is phenomenal."

The last time anyone could even say "Western Connecticut is above-average," Mack and McKoy were sophomores at Stratford High, emerging stars in the backfield. That was in 2005. Two years later, Mack headed to the University of Virginia, where he'd eventually rise to No. 1 on the depth chart at tailback. Unable to score high enough on the SAT, McKoy attended junior colleges in Kansas and Arizona.

Somehow, someway, this duo ended up at WestConn, reversing the fortunes of a program that lost 28 straight games from 2009-12. The Colonials now sit at 3-1, a legitimate contender in their new league.

McKoy, a senior, has amassed over 500 yards rushing and eight touchdowns while Mack is the only WestConn player going both ways. He's starting at corner because he figures to have a better shot at the NFL on defense. Absurd as that may seem, an Indianapolis Colts scout recently watched a practice at the Westside Athletic Complex, previously home to one of the nation's most futile Division III programs.

"They're not the only reason," says second-year coach Joe Loth, "but Octavias and Torrey are a big part of getting things going in the right direction."

Truthfully, it's a direction that neither Mack nor McKoy could have predicted. Neither knew much about WestConn in high school because, frankly, WestConn was a terrible Division III program and they were awesome Division I prospects.

"It was D1, D1, D1," McKoy says. "That's all we heard. You've got to play on TV. You've got to play D1."

And for a few years, Mack did. But the coach who recruited him, Al Groh, was fired from Virginia in 2009. The new regime, led by coach Mike London, wasn't as high on Stratford's speedster.

"It's so much of a business," Mack says, "that you can really get lost in the shuffle."

In February 2011, Mack withdrew from Virginia. Reports surfaced that he had been placed on academic probation. Today, he admits academics played a role in his withdrawal, but also adds the turnover in coaching staff didn't help.

"I'm kinda glad Torrey went D1," McKoy says. "It was like I was with him every step of the way."

That's typical for this duo. As Mack once wrote on his Facebook page, "Blood wouldn't make us any closer." McKoy is the godfather to Mack's 5-year-old son. He was even at the hospital for the birth.

Inseparable by all accounts, these two are opposites in personality, Loth says. An interview with Mack sounds like this: "(Division I) was a good experience, but at the end of the day, football is football."

An interview with McKoy could go in any direction.

"You have to understand that I'm a fan of football first before I'm a player. My favorite running back is probably someone you've never heard of," McKoy says. "Red Grange from Illinois in the 1930s. You ever heard of Red Grange? This guy was doing numbers; it made me feel like, `Man, I'm not doing anything.' This guy rushed for 700 yards in two games ... `The Galloping Ghost,' that's what they called him. On one play, he was running so fast the cameraman couldn't even keep up with him."

While McKoy rambles and Mack chuckles, there's one subject on which they're both concise: Time away from football.

"Longest years of my life," Mack says.

"The worst year," McKoy agrees.

Two JuCo stints yielded zero Division I offers for McKoy (he was primarily playing defense), and he eventually settled in Maryland with his aunt. He worked at Saks Fifth Avenue, delivering shipments of designer clothing. It was good money, he says.

After a payday on Black Friday, McKoy got ready for a night out at a club in Baltimore. New haircut, new shoes and new clothes. He felt good. At the party, McKoy saw Terrell Suggs, the Ravens' All-Pro linebacker. Excited, he approached the NFL star, exchanged a handshake and went back to his table.

"When I was walking back, I was like, `Man, I don't feel right,'" McKoy says. "It was nice, it was a good party, but I wasn't happy. That night in Maryland, something in me just clicked, and I started saving up and planning on coming back to football."

McKoy began researching schools in Connecticut. He came across WestConn, which was affordable. Then he dug into its football program, which was atrocious.

"I wanted to go somewhere where I felt needed," he says. "I wanted to be the one to lay the groundwork, to start something new."

Of course, McKoy knows he's not solely responsible for the Colonials' revival. He has a long list of others -- the offensive line, quarterback Will Arndt, his dad, Bruce McKoy -- who make his job easier. He knows that Loth has a knack for this sort of thing, too: The coach's alma mater, Otterbein University in Ohio, had one winning season in 23 years before he arrived. When Loth departed for WestConn in June 2012, Otterbein had four winning campaigns in six years.

It took eight tries in the 2012 season -- McKoy's first at WestConn -- for the Colonials to snap their 28-game skid. But on a McKoy 1-yard plunge last November, WestConn defeated Montclair State 20-14 in overtime.

"It was right there," McKoy says before Wednesday's practice, pointing to the WestConn endzone. "It was amazing. Everybody ran onto the field. Ever since then, it hasn't been the same."

A month later, Mack decided to enroll at WestConn. He had been taking classes at Southern Connecticut, but the coaches weren't accepting walk-ons (even ones that played at Virginia). He'd also been working at AutoZone in Stratford during the day and clocking night shifts with his father, a truck driver, for extra money. He'd been out of football for over a year.

"I just told him to come play and forget what the critics are going to say and forget the people who would say, `What are you doing (at WestConn)?'" McKoy says.

After all, what did Mack have to lose?

"I knew we killed in high school, so I said let's give it one more shot," he says.

McKoy, 24 years old, is in his final year of eligibility. Mack, 23, has one more left. He's a long way from Virginia these days. And McKoy, who was offered by Iowa out of high school, never became the Big Ten's next Red Grange. But that's OK by them.

"People are always going to try to connect us to football and Division I and not living up to their expectations," McKoy says. "That doesn't matter."

What does: Two years ago this week, WestConn lost to Buffalo State 71-3, the low point in an embarrassing five-year stretch. Now, on this Wednesday afternoon, as the Colonials shoot for 4-1, as a culture has shifted, McKoy heads to practice with three parting words.